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Sorry it could be me that is wrong but this whole concept of training to be stronger, wrist or otherwise will make virtually no difference when moving to a higher string tension.

My understading is that a higher string tension makes the sweet spot smaller, but more powerful. Therefore, it is actually your striking accuracy that you need to improve, not your strength. Something that a pro can do easily when hitting the shuttle 10,000+ times a day every day, but much more difficult if you only play for a few hours a week?

I have to disagree. You need good strength to strike the shuttle, as well as good technique. If you apply both perfectly together, then that's where the power will come from. Strength training also reduce the chances for injury since your muscle is more accustomed to tear and recovery of muscle tissue.

I'd say that this is only partly correct. Yes, the sweet spot is smaller but not necessarily more powerful. The strings works like a catapult effect, the lower tension you have to more catapult effect the strings get. What I mean by a catapult effect is that the strings will "go backward" on impact and then when the shuttle leaves the string beds it pushes it away. This applies for higher tensions as well of course, but the higher the tension, the less effect you get. However, since low tension tends to make the shuttle bounce a bit more, you lose control.

I think most people would agree the pro uses higher tension because their technique is better than an amateur player, not because it has a smaller and more "powerful sweet spot". What makes it a powerful but small sweet spot is the technique, not the string itself.

Originally Posted by Mach10

Sorry it could be me that is wrong but this whole concept of training to be stronger, wrist or otherwise will make virtually no difference when moving to a higher string tension.

My understading is that a higher string tension makes the sweet spot smaller, but more powerful. Therefore, it is actually your striking accuracy that you need to improve, not your strength. Something that a pro can do easily when hitting the shuttle 10,000+ times a day every day, but much more difficult if you only play for a few hours a week?

Hi BigFC, while i do agree we should all practice strengthening our wrist, I personally don't think it will reap much reward because the main power from badminton comes from right technique...that includes pronation/supination, finger power, correct footwork, powerful core muscles used in correlation with strong legs to generate thundering smashes. The strengthening of wrist is just the icing on the cake, if you don't have all those things it gives you very little returns to just power up your wrist. Do note that I am coming from the angle of amateur players, if you are pro of course you must train your wrist more. just my 2 cents. Amateur plyr here....good luck and keep smashing !

The "catapult" or "trampoline" effect is bad pseudo-science. You don't get more force for free just because the strings are looser.

Energy is always conserved. A tight stringbed deforms less, but it takes correspondingly more energy to deform. This energy is released as the strings return to their normal length.

In principle this means that power should be the same regardless of tension: it would purely depend on how much (kinetic) energy the player "created" through his hitting action. In reality it's a lot more complicated than that, because an efficient hitting action transfers a higher proportion of energy into the shuttle, rather than elsewhere (e.g. back into the arm).

Depending on the player, lower or higher string tension will be more efficient. I suspect the response time of a high-tension stringbed is shorter, and that this goes well with a high racket head speed. It might be that with a lower tension instead, the shuttle would already have left the strings before they finished bouncing back into place -- and therefore more energy would be wasted.

Conversely, it may be that at slower racket speeds, the shuttle stays in contact with the strings for longer, and a slower stringbed response is more efficient. It's also possible that with higher tensions, a greater amount of minimum force is required to overcome static friction, before the strings will actually start to move.

Regardless, there is no magical "trampoline" effect that is always better at low tensions. There is only energy stored in the string deformation, and the same energy released when the strings rebound (minus some losses, of course).

Cutting through all the theory, you can easily feel the difference. When you get less power and feel more resistance to your arm during the hit, your string tension is wrong.

Have you ever tried extending a rubber band between your fingers? Doesn't require science to think logically. At least that is my take on it. Higher tension, less time on string bed but more control, however smaller sweet spot. You would need better technique and power in order to be able to make this type of tension efficient.
Lower tension, more time on string bed however less controll but a bigger sweet spot. This would suit those who are beginners and amateurs as the technique of those aren't as good.

Truth be told, I just can't seem to understand what the difference between what you are saying and what I said is different, except for the words. Please explain if you can as my English might be the problem here.

What Gollum and Paul is trying to say is that the stringbed rebound time has to match your racket/swing speed for optimal power/kinetic energy transfer. ....... The harder and faster you can hit, the faster rebound you'll need and this is achieved with higher tension.

Weak player using high tension is like a 4 year-old holding an adult racquet thinking they'll play better than using a kids racquet. You'll lose power, lose consistency, and most importantly, better players secretly laugh at you behind your back.

The "Illusion" amongst the badminton community that power is the most important thing in badminton to increase your game and technique is just plain wrong. Power comes with training. However most people dont realise power is useless without proper technique.

Look at golf players for instance. You can stand there and swing as hard as you can to hit the ball but the chances of getting perfection and distance are next to none without the proper technique. This applies to almost every sport even weightlifting. Technique plays the utmost importance to moving forward with strength and perfection.

As your technique improves and you move forward as a player string tension can be increased to cater to different needs. When I first began I used rackets strung to a basic 20-22lbs As I moved forward i increased to 24lbs and sat at this tension for a lengthy amount of time. Now after years of competing even though I have just returned from a 2 year break mixed with career and injury needs, I can still use 29-30lbs without issue.

Higher tension can give you more power and more control but not if your technique is there to balance everything out.